Sunday, July 22, 2012

India's biggest car company stopped production at a factory in Manesar on Wednesday after a manager was killed and scores injured after a workers attacked officials, smashed equipment and set fire to parts of the plant.Trade unionists have accused Maruti of anti-union activities at the plant, shut for weeks last year due to labour unrest.

The Haryana Police on Sunday said it had arrested six more workers in relation with the attack on company executives

at Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar factory on Wednesday that had resulted in the killing of a senior manager and injuries,

many severe, to 100 others.

A senior police officer said, “So far, 97 workers have been arrested. Investigations are on. We are trying to trace the other

Paroxysm of anger upsets UCPN-M plenumFactionalism rears its ugly head • Chair hurled at chairman • Bhattarai almost roughed upTIKA R PRADHANKATHMANDU: Situation on the fourth day of the seventh plenum of the Unified CPN-Maoist today turned ugly after leaders and cadres close to Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Vice-chairman Baburam Bhattarai engaged in a scuffle over a minor issue of representation.Tension ran high in the meeting hall after central committee member and Bhojpura State Committee Secretary Anjana Bishankhe, along with her team, began shouting slogans to stop a pro-Bhattarai leader Baliram Sah from airing his views. Dahal’s supporters stood against Sah, saying that he was not their representative.Situation could have turned worse had Devendra Poudel, a pro-Bhattarai leader, not stopped a pro-Dahal member, who was just about ready to rough up Bhattarai. Sources said a participant from Bajhang had even hurled a chair towards the rostrum, aiming at Chairman Dahal, but Dahal was unhurt. Pro-Dahal and pro-Bhattarai members were said to have engaged in throwing chairs at each other.Party Spokesperson Dina Nath Sharma denied that any such incident had taken place but admitted that there was tension between members over representation. The official bulletin released in the evening said ‘whatever was being talked out was but rumour’.Today’s meeting was then called off and leaders were escorted to Nepal Tourism Board, where they held a politburo meeting and decided to allow all the groups to air their views. Sources claimed that Dahal had asked his confidantes, including Janardan Sharma and Lokendra Bista who were said to be too furious, to calm down, saying ‘there was no ideological difference with Bhattarai’ and directed them to defend his political document instead.What a politburo member close to Bhattarai told this daily is, however, quite startling. “Dahal and Bhattarai suspect that Vice-chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha is trying to fish in troubled waters. Bishankhe is close to Shrestha,” he said.Most of the speakers today vehemently criticised the government and Bhattarai, as prime minister, for signing BIPPA with India, ‘handing over’ TIA management to an Indian company and cracking down on squatters. The party cadres, especially those who are close to Dahal and Shrestha, were furious that Bhattarai had ‘forced PLA to surrender’. Leaders close to Bhattarai failed to defend the government despite they were prepared. This could have led to the scuffle, said a source.Meanwhile, Chairman Dahal today told Bhattarai that he was surprised by the activities of his cadres. Dahal said the agitated cadres were shouldering the agendas that have been raised by the Mohan Baidhya faction for long.http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Paroxysm+of+anger+upsets+UCPN-M+plenum+&NewsID=340372From The Indian Express:Party colleague punches BhattaraiYubaraj Ghimire : Kathmandu, Sat Jul 21 2012, 01:36 hrsPrime Minister Baburam Bhattarai was rescued by security personnel after a senior leader of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists (UCPN-M) punched him during the national plenum of the party on Friday.A protective ring was formed around the prime minister who fell after he was attacked by Janardan Sharma, a former minister and central committee member of the party. The incident occurred when delegates belonging to the prime minister and party chairman Prachanda’s factions argued with each other over who should speak on behalf of provincial committees at the plenum.While Bhattarai supporter Baliram Saha was speaking, Sharma rushed to the dais and attacked him. Saha was booed by pro-Prachanda delegates and the situation quickly deteriorated when Sharma targeted the prime minister as well. In the chaos that followed, Bhattarai supporter Prabhu Saha, also a former minister, threw a chair at party chief Prachanda, who left the meeting in panic after adjourning the session.Bhattarai had been criticised earlier by members for “mortgaging national interest to India” by signing the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) agreement. The prime minister was to respond to the charge on the last day of the meet. “You have signed unequal treaty with India, and you are planning to hand-over Nepal’s airports to India,” yelled Ishwari Bhandari, a member of the party’s Foreign Affairs Committee.The police took over the Rastriya Sabha Griha, the venue of the plenum, and top leaders were evacuated from the hall. The event, was a disappointment to both Prachanda and Bhattarai who had previously declared that the party was united and that factionalism had ended.Prachanda called for an emergency meeting of the politburo and summoned the plenum back promising that there would be two speakers each from Bhojpura province representing both the Bhattarai and Prachanda factions. The party decided to bar media representatives from entering the premises in the aftermath of the attack.http://www.indianexpress.com/news/party-colleague-punches-bhattarai/977384/0From The Himalayan Times:"Dahal not attacked‚ Bhattarai not manhandled"KATHMANDU: In what seems to be a face-saving attempt, the UCPN-Maoist rubbished the media reports about the fracas in the party's ongoing plenum on Friday.In the official bulletin issued by the plenum's publicity subcommittee on Friday evening, its co-ordinator Bishwa Bhakta Dulal claimed that there was an argument among the representatives from the Bhojpura State Committee only and the media reports that chairs were thrown at Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Politburo member Janardan Sharma manhandled Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai at the closed session of party's ongoing plenum were incorrect.Dulal claimed that the closed session, which kicked off at 11 am, was put off briefly after the argument over the presentation of report from the Bhojpura State Committee.”The session resumed after the Politburo meeting assessed the problems seen in the hall and found solution," he said,"A decision has been made to study the differences seen in the Bhojpura State."Leaders of six groups presented their reports today, while the remaining New State Committee will present its report tomorrow. Seven out of 14 groups had presented their reports at the extended meeting yesterday.In the closed session that will resume at 11 tomorrow morning, party Chairman Dahal and Vice Chairmen Dr. Bhattarai and Narayan Kaji Shrestha will speak.The seventh plenum will conclude tomorrow.http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=%26quot%3BDahal+not+attacked%E2%80%9A+Bhattarai+not+manhandled%26quot%3B&NewsID=340299

Spanish trade union confederations CCOO and UGT have called a day of action against austerity on Thursday 19 July 2012 to protest yet again at the austerity policies of the Spanish Government. Just days after receiving loans from the rest of Europe to bail out the banks, the Spanish Government has proposed yet more stringent attacks on the welfare state, hitting the living conditions of workers, pensioners and the unemployed.

CCOO General Secretary Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, who is President of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), has blogged on Touchstone about the issues underlying the protest.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber has sent the following message of

solidarity and support, on behalf of the British trade union movement:

'I write once again a message of solidarity on behalf of the British trade union movement and its 6 million workers in support of your day of action to protest against austerity. Like ours, your government is still intent on following the path of austerity, even though this has not produced in Spain - or anywhere else in Europe - the economic growth we need. Instead, these policies are creating destitution for the vulnerable, social division and conflict, and greater inequality.

'When governments are dismantling the welfare state, collective bargaining and social dialogue, and while money is found to bail out the banks, workers have no choice but to unite and protest against the injustice, for however long it will take to make those in power change their course.

'We will stand beside you in this and future struggles.'

And ETUC General Secretary Bernadette Segol, who will be attending the protest in Madrid, had this to say:

'The austerity measures have shown that they make the employment situation worse and have impoverished a large part of the population. Often unfair, they solve nothing and open up no prospects for the future. Nevertheless, some countries are continuing along this line, as is the case in Spain today.

'The announced cuts in public spending are increasing social anxiety in a country already deeply scarred by austerity policies.

That is why I shall be at the side of our Spanish member organisations to demonstrate the solidarity of the European Trade Union movement.'

Three elderly Kenyans who are suing the government for
damages were told it did not dispute that "terrible things" had
happened to them.

Their lawyers say it is the first ever official
acknowledgement by the UK.

The revolt against British rule in Kenya in the 1950s and
1960s was marked by atrocities, with thousands killed.

The British government argues that too much time has
passed for a fair hearing to be conducted.

Before starting cross-examination of witnesses, the QC for
the British government, Guy Mansfield, said he did not want to dispute that
civilians had suffered "torture and ill-treatment at the hands of the
colonial administration".

He spoke directly to each of the witnesses, saying he did
"not want to dispute the fact that terrible things happened to you".

Papers in the test case were first served on the UK in
2009.

In 2011, a High Court judge ruled the claimants - Paulo
Muoka Nzili, Wambuga Wa Nyingi and Jane Muthoni Mara - did have an arguable
case.

The claimants' lawyers allege that Mr Nzili was castrated,
Mr Nyingi was severely beaten and Mrs Mara was subjected to appalling sexual
abuse in detention camps during the rebellion.

A fourth claimant, Ndiku Mutwiwa Mutua, has died since the
High Court ruling that the test case could go ahead.

With the help of interpreters at the High Court, the three
- now in their 70s and 80s - were briefly questioned about written evidence
they had provided.

In a 20-page statement, Mr Nzili, 85, gave details of
being stripped, chained and castrated, with large pliers normally used on cows,
at Embakasi detention camp, near Nairobi.

He said: "I felt completely destroyed and without
hope. I have never had children of my own and never will have. I am unable to
have sexual relations with my wife."

Mrs Mara, 73, submitted evidence describing how, at the
age of 15, she was taken to Gatithi detention camp, where she was beaten by the
British and subjected to sexual abuse with a glass bottle containing very hot
water.

She said she had felt "completely and utterly
violated", adding that the pain "has been bad ever since the beatings
and has worsened as I have aged".

"I do not understand why I was treated with such
brutality for simply having provided

food to the Mau Mau.

"I want the British citizens of today to know what
their forefathers did to me and to so many others. These crimes cannot go
unpunished and forgotten."

In his statement, Mr Nyingi, 84 - a father of 16 who still
works as a casual labourer - described being arrested on Christmas Eve 1952 and
held for nine years.

During his detention, in 1959, he said he was beaten
unconscious during an incident at Hola camp in which 11 other prisoners were
clubbed to death.

On
18th July,1982 Comrade Kanhai Chaterjee
expired ,who made an invaluable contribution to the cause of the Indan revolution,
by founding the Maoist Communist Center. Today we dip our blood in his memory.

It
was his innovative thinking that made Com.Kanhai Chaterjee critical of Charu
Mazumdar’s C.P.I(M.L.) and it’s tactical line of individual annihilation.
Comrade K. C. chalked out a path for the M.C.C whereby they formulated a
strategy of heir own. The methods of work they adopted resembled Comrade Mao
Tse Tung’s Red Army in the revolutionary war. Few revolutionary books or
observers cannot but remember their striking similarity with the Chinese Peoples
Liberation Corps, particularly he way they fled to the mountains. It was
Comrade Kanhai Chaterjee who believe staunchly that the time was not
appropriate for the forming of the party. He felt there had to be greater
development in the revolutionary movement to form a party. In his view first an
agrarian revolutionary movement had to be launched. Today it is significant
that both the Charu Mazumar C.P.I(M.L) and the Maoist Communist Centre are
recognized as the founding parties and not just Charu Mazumdar’s party.(The
Peoples War and Party Unity Groups staunchly defended the Charu Mazumdar Party
as the re-organised party.)

History
of the Formation of the Party.(Compiled from PeoplesMarch-Nov 2004 issue) The
Maoist Communist Centre was originally called the ‘Dakshin Desh ‘group It was
originally apart of he A.I.C.CR
but eventually pulled out.

Comrades
Kanai Chatterjee and Amulya Sen, while working amongst the masses in Kolkata,
Howrah and Hoogli and comrade Chandrashekar Das raised the banner of revolt
against the line of the CPM 7th Congress.

The “Chinta” group was formed in 1965
as a secret revolutionary centre within the CPM carrying out revolutionary
propaganda amongst its rank-an-file.

In
1965/66 six issues of the magazine were brought out which dealt with the
following topics: (a) the class character of the Indian state, (b) China’s path
is our path,( c) neo-colonialism and the weapon of PL role, (d) the
Programme of the 7th Congress, the nature of the revisionist leadership and the
peasant question in India, etc. The CPM’s English and Bengali organs launched a
massive attacks on the articles that appeared in the “Chinta”. This resulted in
big discussions throughout the rank-and-file.

In late 1966 the secret magazine,
“Chinta”, was closed down and a magazine named “Dakshin Desh” was brought out
openly. The group came to be known as the “Dakshin Desh” group. In early 1967,
before the Naxalbari uprising com. Kanai Chatterjee had a long discussion with
Com. CM. At this meeting they had a common understanding on advancing the
peasant movement and decided to maintain close relations.

But
the relations did not grow. From 1967 to 1969 the then “Dakshin Desh” group
built up the movement in Kolkata, Howrah, Hoogli, Midnapur, Bardhwan,Birbum and
24 Parganas, together with some work in Assam and Tripura. They built the
peasant movement firstly in Sonarpur during the later part of the 60s and then
in Kanksa in Bardhwan district. Thereafter they established some contacts with
Bihar, it began work there.

In October 1969 the MCC was formed. It was Com.
Kanai Chatterjee who laid the basic line for their Centre in the very first
issue of “Lal Pataka” brought out in 1969.

The
important topics dealt with were:

(a)
the importance of Maoism (then called ‘thought’) in the present era,

(b)
in the present situation the tactical line and tactical slogans, the correct
policy towards the participation in elections and a correct analysis of the
boycott of elections, saying that though it was a question of tactics, it
acquires the significance of strategy in the concrete conditions of India,

(c)
the Correct line regarding the armed agrarian revolutionary war, that is,
protracted people’s war including army building and base areas

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Suit and tie We're deadly afraid of the clever guyWearing suit and tie

They used to roam the streets of Reykjavik And thought they were what made the city tic From bank to lunch with Nikkei, Dow Jones and FTSE Dressed to kill in Armani, Boss and Gucci Cheerful, laughing, full of self esteem The players of our national team

But now you hardly see them anymore The crisis took them through a different doorTheir bank got crunched by Euro, Dollar and Yen So now they're trying Tai Chi, Yoga and ZenStill they're good in playing the blaming gameThe players of our national shame

Iceland: The home of young and retired bossesAnd regular people busy counting their lossesThe high-flying heroes of good times past Have come to the ground and had their blast Hiding inside his fancy house The bull now meets his inner mouse

July 16, 2012Statement from Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties CommitteeIn the early morning between 4.30 and 5.00 AM on 16th july Mr. Narayanrao, Hyderabad APCLC Unit Secretary and another activist MR.Hanumantarao along with 15 persons, who are the relatives of the deceased in the recent Chintlanar massacre were abducted by the Police near Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station in Hyderabad. Mr. Naryaanarao went to the Bus Station to receive the tribes and help them to reach Raipur to attend a meeting against the Bijapur killings to be held on 17th July. Worried about their missing and doubting the hand of the police the APCLC members went to the Afjulgung Police Station and enquired about the incident. But the police replied that they did not arrest any one from Bus Station.

Apprehending danger to the lives of APCLC activists and others a delegation met the Home Minister, Sabita Indirareddy and brought to her notice about the abduction. After three hours the Home Minister confirmed the arrest but did not disclose the place of detention.

However, the police belatedly confirmed arrests and said, they need some time to interrogate the arrested persons but refused to inform the place of detention. We suspect that the police may torture and use third degree methods.

We believe, firstly, that the arrests are made in the back drop of the recent visit of CDRO fact finding team to three villages in Bijapur district for an inquiry in the massacre of tribes and releasing a report to the press which made it public the barbarity of the CRPF and other Paramilitary forces and the cold blooded murder of Adivasi people. Secondly, it is to prevent people from attending Raipur Meeting on 17th July. Thirdly, the principal intention behind the abductions is to terrorize APCLC and Adivasis and to and to keep silent on the recent massacre. It is also a police strategy to prevent rights associations from knowing truth through fact finding enquires.

The Apex Court has in quite a number of its decisions reiterated the right to know is a fundamental right and form part of freedom of speech and expression. Hence, the arrest of rights activists and Adivasis is to throttle the voice against the state lawlessness and particularly the recent genocide of tribes in Chattishgarh

We therefore strongly condemn the abductions of rights activists and request all the rights organizations to express solidarity and support to our struggle for their release.